Dalin, David G.

(David Gil Dalin)

PERSONAL:

Education: University of California at Berkeley, B.A.; Brandeis University, M.A., Ph.D.; completed seminary studies at Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Religion: Jewish.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Political Science Department, Loyola Hall, Rm. 137, Ave Maria University, 1025 Commons Cir., Naples, FL 34119. E-mail—[email protected]

CAREER:

Ave Maria University, Naples, FL, professor of history and political science. Has taught at other colleges and universities, including Ave Maria Col- lege, Ypsilanti, MI, and University of Hartford, CT. Ordained rabbi in Conservative branch of Judaism. Lecturer on Pope Pius XII and the Jews in World War II and on the relationship of Pope John Paul II and the Jews.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

(Editor) From Marxism to Judaism: The Collected Essays of Will Herberg, Markus Wiener Publishers (New York, NY), 1989.

(Editor) American Jews & the Separationist Faith: The New Debate on Religion in Public Life, Ethics and Public Policy Center (Washington, DC), 1993.

(With Jonathan Rosenbaum) Making a Life, Building a Community: A History of the Jews of Hartford, Holmes & Meier (New York, NY), 1997.

(With Jonathan D. Sarna) Religion and State in the American Jewish Experience, University of Notre Dame Press (Notre Dame, IN), 1997.

(Editor, with Elliott Abrams) Secularism, Spirituality, and the Future of American Jewry, Ethics and Public Policy Center (Washington, DC), 1999.

(With Alfred J. Kolatch) The Presidents of the United States & the Jews, Jonathan David Publishers (Middle Village, NY), 2000.

(Editor, with Joseph Bottum) The Pius War: Responses to the Critics of Pius XII, Lexington Books (Lanham, MD), 2004.

The Myth of Hitler's Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews from the Nazis, Regnery Publishing (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributor to books, including Toward a Theological Encounter: Jewish Understandings of Christianity, edited by Leon Klenecki, Paulist Press, 1991. Contributor of articles and reviews to periodicals, including American Jewish History, Commentary, Conservative Judaism, First Things, Weekly Standard, and American Jewish Year Book.

SIDELIGHTS:

David G. Dalin, a college professor and an ordained rabbi in the Conservative branch of Judaism, has coauthored or edited several books on the experience of Jews in the United States, while his first book as sole author is a defense of a Roman Catholic pontiff who had been accused of complicity in Nazi Germany's slaughter of European Jews. That book, The Myth of Hitler's Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews from the Nazis, is an answer to John Cornwell's book Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII and other works critical of Pius XII. Dalin had previously visited this topic as coeditor of The Pius War: Responses to the Critics of Pius XII.

Like his works on Pius XII, several of Dalin's other books deal with Christian-Jewish relations, often supporting the argument that Christian and Jewish interests need not be in conflict. His first book-length work as an editor was From Marxism to Judaism: The Collected Essays of Will Herberg. Herberg was a twentieth-century Jewish scholar who believed that modern Jews had been wrong to embrace the secularization of society. In Religion and State in the American Jewish Experience, Dalin and coauthor Jonathan D. Sarna discuss what various Jewish leaders have said about the proper role of religion in public life over the history of the republic. Some have favored strict separation of the two, but others have contended that an expansive role for religion can benefit Judaism.

The Christian leader who is the focus of The Myth of Hitler's Pope, born Eugenio Pacelli, was the Vatican's nuncio, or emissary, to Germany from 1917 to 1929 and secretary of state to Pope Pius XI from 1930 to 1939, then became Pope Pius XII in 1939. Cornwell, other historians, and playwright Rolf Hochhuth have portrayed Pius XII as at best indifferent to the Nazi Holocaust of Jews, at worst a collaborator in it. Among other things, they have pointed to the Concordat, or agreement, he signed with Germany in 1933, providing for German Catholics' freedom of religion and for diplomatic relations between the German government and the Vatican. Some observers consider this document a capitulation to Adolf Hitler's regime; others, like Dalin, see it as an attempt to protect Catholics living in Germany. Dalin contends that the characterization of Pius XII as pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic is based on spurious sources, and he points out that this pope denounced Nazi Germany's treatment of the Jews, directed other Catholic leaders to rescue them, and sheltered Jews in his summer home when Germany occupied Rome.

Dalin further argues that the hostility to Pius XII has roots in hostility to religion in general. As John Jay Hughes observed in a critique of the book for the Catholic Historical Review, Dalin makes a case that largely, "those who today criticize Pius XII for silence and inaction in the face of the Holocaust are angry or lapsed Catholics seeking to discredit papal authority." Hughes added: "In the contest of advocates Dalin must be declared the clear winner," although the reviewer thought the subject also merited an examination by someone who is not an advocate for either side. Several other critics praised Dalin's work as rehabilitating Pius XII's reputation. "Dalin shows, with copious documentation, the ‘silence’ of Pius XII and the Catholic Church is one of the great falsehoods of the 20th century," remarked William Doino, Jr., in the Weekly Standard. National Review contributor Michael Potemra noted that "Rabbi Dalin's brief is strong," while Literary Review commentator Michael Burleigh deemed the book a "powerful and closely argued polemic." Doino concluded: "Dalin has begun the work of reestablishing the truth."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Jewish History, June-September, 1999, Lance J. Sussman, review of Making a Life, Building a Community: A History of the Jews of Hartford, p. 219.

Catholic Historical Review, October, 2005, Mark Edward Ruff, review of The Pius War: Responses to the Critics of Pius XII, p. 847, John Jay Hughes, review of The Myth of Hitler's Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews from the Nazis, p. 849.

First Things, October, 1997, Elliott Abrams, review of Religion and State in the American Jewish Experience, p. 56.

Journal of Church and State, winter, 1999, Hasia R. Diner, review of Religion and State in the American Jewish Experience, p. 154.

Literary Review, February, 2006, Michael Burleigh, "Rent-a-Moralists at Bay."

National Review, July 14, 1989, Richard Neuhaus, review of From Marxism to Judaism: The Collected Essays of Will Herberg, p. 50; August 9, 2005, Michael Potemra, review of The Myth of Hitler's Pope, p. 49.

Publishers Weekly, January 15, 2001, review of The Presidents of the United States & the Jews, p. 67.

Weekly Standard, June 12, 2006, William Doino, Jr., "Pius the Good: The Brief for a Much-Maligned Pope."

ONLINE

Catholic Exchange,http://www.catholicexchange.com/ (July 29, 2005), Thomas Woods, "The Myth of Hitler's Pope: An Interview with Rabbi David G. Dalin."

Catholic Online,http://www.catholic.org/ (January 13, 2006), Eugene J. Fisher, "Books Revisit the ‘Pius War.’"

Curled Up with a Good Book,http://www.curledup.com/ (September 26, 2006), Benet Exton, review of The Pius War.

Humanities and Social Sciences Net,http://www.h-net.org/ (October 8, 2006), Peter Margolis, "The Myth of Strict Separation."